Sometimes, when the bleeding is stopped outwardly, it continues inwardly. This is very troublesome, and requires particular attention, as the patient is apt to be suffocated with the blood, especially if he falls asleep, which he is very ready to do after losing a great quantity of blood.
When the patient is in danger of suffocation from the blood getting into his throat, the passages may be stopped by drawing threads up the nostrils, and bringing them out at the mouth, then fastening pieces of spunge, or small rolls of linen cloth to their extremities; afterwards drawing them back, and tying them on the outside with a sufficient degree of tightness.
After the bleeding is stopped, the patient ought to be kept as easy and quiet as possible. He should not pick his nose, nor take away the tents or clotted blood, till they fall off of their own accord, and should not lie with his head low.
Those who are affected with frequent bleeding at the nose ought to bathe their feet often in warm water, and to keep them warm and dry. They ought to wear nothing tight about their necks, to keep their body as much in an erect posture as possible, and never to view any object obliquely. If they have too much blood, a vegetable diet, with now and then a cooling purge, is the safest way to lessen it.
But when the disease proceeds from a thin dissolved flare of the blood, the diet should be rich and nourishing; as strong broths and jellies, sago-gruel with wine and sugar, &c. Infusions of the Peruvian bark in wine ought likewise to be taken and persisted in for a considerable time.
OF THE BLEEDING AND BLIND PILES.
A discharge of blood from the hæmorrhoidal vessels is called the bleeding piles. When the vessels only swell, and discharge no blood, but are exceeding painful, the disease is called the blind piles.
Persons of a loose spungy fibre, of a bulky size, who live high, and lead a sedentary inactive life, are most subject to this disease. It is often owing to a hereditary disposition. Where this is the case, it attacks persons more early in life than when it is accidental. Men are more liable to it than women, especially those of a sanguine, plethoric, or a scorbutic habit, or of a melancholy disposition.
The piles may be occasioned by an excess of blood, by strong aloetic purges, high-seasoned food, drinking great quantities of sweet wines, the neglect of bleeding, or other customary evacuations, much riding, great costiveness, or any thing that occasions hard or difficult stools. Anger, grief, or other violent passions, will likewise occasion the piles. I have often known them brought on by sitting on the damp ground. A pair of thin breeches will excite the disorder in a person who is subject to it, and sometimes even in those who never had it before. Pregnant women are often afflicted with the piles.
A flux of blood from the anus is not always to be treated as a disease. It is even more salutary than bleeding at the nose, and often prevents or carries off diseases. It is peculiarly beneficial in the gout, rheumatism, asthma, and hypochondriacal complaints, and often proves critical in colics, and inflammatory fevers.